As one of the most used rooms in the house, the kitchen deserves all the luxuries appointed to living and dining spaces— beautiful furnishings , stylish art, even a blazing fireplace. While fireplaces were once a necessity in the kitchen, they started to be less common as appliances became more widely available. Today a kitchen fireplace is no replacement for a Viking range, but a hearth does add warmth, style, and a spot to display art and collections . From urban rooms to rustic culinary spaces, these chic examples from the AD archives show why a cozy kitchen truly is the heart of the home.

Shown: Artist Joy de Rohan-Chabot conjured the verdant ceramic tile surrounding the fireplace in the kitchen of her family’s château in the Auvergne region of central France. Henri II–style chairs encircle an antique tile-top table.

In the kitchen of a Zurich home designed by Steven Gambrel, glossy black Moroccan tiles from Mosaic House are offset by wire-brushed-oak cabinetry and honed granite countertops.

George III–style dining chairs surround a table by Made in the kitchen of Brooke Shields’s Manhattan townhouse; the pendant lamps are by Foscarini, the range is by Wolf, and the chimney breast—faced in glazed tile—displays a Malcolm Liepke painting.

A roaring fire warms up the sitting area in the kitchen of architect Benedikt Bolza’s farmhouse in Umbria, Italy. The space is outfitted with built-in sofas, a table fashioned from an antique door, and a floor of flagstones salvaged from nearby stables; the shelves are lined with jars of peeled tomatoes from the family’s garden.

In the kitchen of a refurbished Virginia plantation house designed by Amelia Handegan, an antique tole chandelier from Parc Monceau is suspended above an English breakfast table near the fireplace; the hood and range are by Wolf, the wall light is from Circa Lighting, and the sink fittings are by Waterworks.

At the Martha’s Vineyard summer home of Lynn Forester de Rothschild and her husband, Sir Evelyn, vintage copper pots shimmer in the kitchen where an Ellsworth Kelly lithograph hung above the fireplace overlooks a 19th-century tavern table and two antique chairs. Architect Hugh Weisman and decorator Mark Cunningham designed the home.

In the kitchen of Valentino brand ambassador Carlos Souza’s retreat outside Rio de Janeiro, blue-and-white ceramics enliven a wall; the tile around the fireplace is Portuguese, and the cabinets are curtained in a Colefax and Fowler check.

The original kitchen hearth in the historic Italian villa of linens matriarch Dede Pratesi is made of pietra serena, a stone commonly found in Tuscan houses; the table, covered in a vintage Pratesi cloth, is surrounded by 19th-century chairs inherited from her grandparents

In a Boston home renovated by interior designer Thad Hayes and architect Dell Mitchell, curtains of a Great Plains fabric frame the windows in the kitchen’s dining area; the dining table is by Knoll, and the midcentury lounge chairs beside the fireplace are Swedish.

In the breakfast area of a New York townhouse revived by architect Peter Pennoyer and designer Shawn Henderson, a circa-1950 French holophane light from Avantgarden hangs above the Chris Lehrecke table from Ralph Pucci International; the painting above the fireplace is by George Lloyd, and the Moroccan floor tile is by Mosaic House.

One end of the kitchen in a 19th-century Manhattan townhouse designed by Leroy Street Studio architects and decorator Christine Markatos Lowe is furnished with a table, sofa, and bench (its cushion covered in a Holly Hunt leather), all from Room; the landscape photograph is by Armstrong, the pendant lights are by Niche Modern, and the antique steel cabinet beside the fireplace is from Fleur.

Designer Susan Schuyler Smith and architect Marco Vidotto kept a mid-19th-century fireplace as the focal point in the kitchen of a medieval property in Italy. Smith installed the center island and cabinetry.

In the kitchen of the upstate New York home of lighting designer Christopher Spitzmiller, a vintage light from Ann-Morris is suspended above a French table that used to belong to Bunny Mellon; the tile above the Viking range is by Ann Sacks, and P. Allen Smith painted the large watercolor above the fireplace.